September 23, 2022
Sleeping giant Maniapoto eyes post-settlement vista
Hauraki Waikato MP and former Maniapoto negotiator Nanaia Mahuta says getting the iwi’s treaty settlement legislation through parliament is a mammoth moment.
Ms Mahuta says one of her aims was to see all settlements within the Tainui waka concluded, and that is now well down the track.
She says getting almost a though people to Wellington to witness the third reading was a indication of its importance to the King Country iwi.
“It’s hard to stir Manaipoto. They’re like a sleeping giant so to get an ope of that magnitude here to Poneke, there is sufficient hope and optimism the settlement will be an empowering one for our people at home but also for the 90 percent who live outside the rohe but want to support the aspirations of Maniapoto. It’s a mammoth moment,” Ms Mahuta says.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing, with the tribe slow to come together to start negotiations and then having to go through mandate challenges, but a kotahitanga approach has prevailed.